As my seniors' first writing assignment of the year, we're working on producing the most stellar college application essays the world has ever known. And I'm being stingy with the grading -- I am setting the bar in the stratosphere for these kids. No senioritis allowed in my room until April. Period.
And now comes the part where I remember that I set the bar so high because I realize while a handful of kids will reach darn near any expectations I set for them, the average kid will shoot for about 80% and achieve about 70%. I do my best to work those kids through their writing assignments stressing improvement, and praise them for the good parts as much as I correct the lousy parts. That said, I have a few kids who I am REALLY going to have to work with this year to reach their goals.
For instance, the one who used the word "collage" instead of "college" throughout his essay, and the two students who made the same mistake once in their essays.
Oh boy. Lots of work to do this year.
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